


All These Things They’ll Never Know

by giselleslash



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-22
Updated: 2011-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-26 10:42:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/282117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giselleslash/pseuds/giselleslash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People think a lot of things about Arthur, but Merlin knows the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All These Things They’ll Never Know

A lot of people thought Arthur cold, reserved, a bit stodgy, and not at all suited for Merlin.

They could never understand what it was Merlin saw in him, how they ever got together, how they ever _stayed_ together.

No one thought they fit.

They would see Merlin; lively, happy, always cracking a joke, always smiling, and they would see Arthur; quiet, a bit stiff, a bit removed from everyone else, and they’d wonder. They’d always wonder how on earth Merlin and Arthur ever came to be Merlin and Arthur.

They could understand what Arthur saw in Merlin. Everyone loved Merlin, wanted to be his mate, his confidant. Everyone wanted him near because he made them happy, made them calm, made them feel better. He always knew what to say, what to do.

Arthur? Well, Arthur was never one anyone went to when they needed someone to talk to or were looking for a good time. Arthur seemed like he thought he was above them all, unapproachable and severe. No one would voluntarily seek out Arthur for anything, unless of course it was about the market and the economy and other very dull, serious things.

He never showed any sort of affection towards Merlin, other than never leaving his side no matter where they were; party, pub, football match, but they chalked that up to Arthur being clever enough to realize there wasn’t anyone other than Merlin that wanted him near anyway.

No one could ever figure out why Merlin lit up like a sky full of stars whenever Arthur entered a room, why he would smile like his heart was overflowing when Arthur would say his name, or why he could never stop telling everyone he knew, and some he’d just met on the street, that he was lucky to have Arthur, lucky to love him, how did he ever get so lucky?

If Merlin were anyone else people would’ve thought him a bit mad, or under the influence of some sort of hallucinogenic to say those thing about Arthur. _Arthur._

It was all a huge mystery that all of their friends wondered about pretty much every time they saw Merlin and Arthur together, which was always, one was never very far from the other, but they had simply resigned themselves to the fact it was a mystery that would never be solved.

Merlin knew what their friends thought of him and Arthur, Arthur did too, and sometimes it pained Merlin that Arthur should know he was thought so lowly of, but Merlin knew the truth of it all and that filled his heart enough to make all those disbelieving, thoughtless words slip right off of him.

Merlin knew that Arthur was anything but cold, reserved, a bit stodgy, and not at all suited for him.

Merlin knew Arthur burned hotter than a flame, said more with one look than a thousand useless, meaningless words, was brilliant and exciting, and was the only person that would ever _ever_ own his heart.

In fact, there was no one more suited for him than Arthur. Merlin believed the two of them had been carved out of the same stone, a strong beautiful stone, at the very beginning of time and had somehow been parted, sadly, tragically, and had wandered until they finally found one another again and could safely lock themselves back into place. Side by side.

Merlin had told Arthur his belief in the darkest part of the night and Arthur had threaded their fingers together, slipped back inside Merlin, every part of them perfectly aligned, perfectly fitted as if to prove Merlin’s point exactly. Merlin had held onto Arthur, told him he loved him so, and Arthur’s heart had thumped inside his chest hard enough to nearly beat itself into Merlin’s and Merlin knew he had been right all along.

Merlin let their friends think what they would, if his words and actions couldn’t change what they thought about Arthur then he’d let them keep wondering, keep being dumbfounded, it wasn’t any matter to him. He had Arthur and he pitied them that they didn’t.

He was the one that knew Arthur appeared quiet and cold and standoffish because he was strangely, oddly, painfully shy and never wanted to say the wrong thing so said nothing at all. He knew Arthur never showed affection toward him in public because the touch of Merlin’s hand still made Arthur nearly shake apart, even after years and years, and the tremble of his hands when they touched, the flush of his skin, made him feel embarrassed and awkward.

He was the one that knew that Arthur watched him sleep at night because he thought him too beautiful to ever look away, brought him ginger ale and rubbed his chest when he was ill, read to him when he couldn’t sleep. He knew that sometimes Arthur would come home in the middle of the day just to open the door and look at Merlin, just look at him and wait for him to smile so he could smile in return before going back to work, simply because he hadn’t been able to stand, in that moment, to be apart from Merlin.

He was the one that knew Arthur’s kisses tasted like peppermint and felt like starlight, that the slope of Arthur’s naked back was like a song, and that Arthur would come apart, could be beautifully broken by Merlin calling him my love, my darling, my dear.

Merlin was fine with what they thought, their misinformation, because he was the only one that woke up every April 24th to see a note, carefully written in small, neat script, propped up against his alarm clock.

  
_Today was the first day I saw you._   


Every word Arthur said, or didn’t say, every action he made said, _’I love you.’_ and they all belonged to Merlin. Every single one. Every smile, every crackle of laughter, every whispered kiss was his and his alone. Arthur saved all the things that mattered for when they were alone because Merlin knew, that to Arthur, he was all that mattered. He didn’t care that nobody saw, because he did, and every beautiful piece of Arthur was locked safely inside Merlin’s heart.

Which is where it belonged anyway.

 

~End


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